National Ocean Policy Announced

On July 19, President Obama signed an Executive Order establishing a National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Coasts, and Great Lakes. That Executive Order adopts the Final Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force. This strengthens ocean governance and coordination, establishes guiding principles for ocean management, and adopts a flexible framework for effective coastal and marine spatial planning to address conservation, economic activity, user conflict, and sustainable use of the ocean, our coasts and the Great Lakes. The Executive Order establishes an interagency National Ocean Council to coordinate issues across the Federal Government and implement the National Policy. Coastal and marine spatial planning would be regional in scope, developed cooperatively among Federal, state, tribal, and local authorities, and include substantial stakeholder, scientific, and public input. The full text of the National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Coasts, and Great Lakes may be found at www.whitehouse.gov/oceans.

Critical Choices in Ocean Governance

From the Council on Foreign Relations, a transcript from a panel with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Admiral Thad W. Allen, David Rockefeller Jr., Tom Fry, President, and Scott G. Borgerson. The purpose for this meeting was to put U.S. ocean governance into a broader international context and to have a open and frank discussion about the critical issues that are confronting U.S. policymakers. For example, what happens after the president's Oceans Policy Task Force. Additionally, each member of the panel speaks about their activities in ocean conservation, and the changes they have seen in the ocean in their lifetime, and how it relates to current ocean governance.
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Abrupt Reversal in Arctic Cooling

A report from an international team of climate scientists has concluded that the global cooling trend in progress until the Industrial Revolution was abruptly reversed, giving clear indication that human actions have had an effect on climate change. Scientists studied sediment cores, glacier cores and tree rings in the Arctic to determine plant growth rate trends and determine historical patterns of cooling and warming. The seven-year study shows that nature's behavior over the last 150 years supports the climate change theory. Read More>>




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